Outdoor Voices’ layoffs via Slack lack basic empathy, says expert [Video]

Athletic apparel brand Outdoor Voices is just the latest in a long line of companies to conduct mass layoffs — and “totally mishandle” them, says a leadership expert.

Employees were notified on Wednesday, via an internal Slack message, that the company was closing all 16 of their brick and mortar stores, “embarking on a new chapter as we transition to an exclusively online business,” according to The New York Times. Two employees told the publication that they were blindsided by the news.

San Francisco-based executive coach Rohan Verma says that while this an unfortunate economic reality, Outdoor Voices could have handled the situation with more care.

“These approaches, especially laying off folks over Slack, lack basic empathy for the employees’ contributions and may only exacerbate the anxiety and shock people are feeling,” Verma told CNBC Make It via email.

This curt approach to layoffs seems to be an increasingly prevalent workplace trend. Meta …